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Stanford In Second Place After First Day Of 2007 Pac-10 Championships

Long Beach, Calif. - Stanford's victorious 200 medley relay team set new Pac-10 and schools records on the first day of the 2007 Pac-10 Women's Swimming Championships on Wednesday at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool. The Cardinal is in second place after the first two events of the meet with 118 points with California's 120 leading the meet. Fiona O'Donnell-McCarthy, Caroline Bruce, Elaine Breeden and Brooke Bishop checked in with a time of 1:37.71 to beat the eight-year-old records set by Stanford's Shelly Ripple, Whitney Leatherwood, Misty Hyman and Gabrielle Rose by six-hundredths of a second. The time was also the best in the nation by a collegiate team this season.

'Winning the opening event of the meet the way we did with our personnel not even totally rested for this meet was a great way to start,' said Stanford head coach Lea Maurer.'

An 800 free relay team of Julia Smit, Whitney Spence, Elizabeth Durot and Desireé Stahley took third in a time of 7:06.59 behind California (7:05.59) and Arizona (7:06.11) with all three teams shattering the previous Pac-10 meet record of 7:08.13 set by California in 2004.

'All three teams raced really tough,' commented Maurer.

Both of Stanford's times met the NCAA `A' standard.

Oregon State and USC are tied for third after the first day of the meet with 100 points, followed by UCLA and Washington (96), Washington (88), Arizona (56) and Arizona State (54). Both Arizona (200 medley relay) and Arizona State (800 free relay) suffered disqualifications.

The diving competition was held last Friday-Sunday in Federal Way, Washington, but none of the points have been entered into the team totals yet. Stanford's Cassidy Krug won two of the three events with victories in the 1-meter and 3-meter diving competitions.

The four-day meet continues Thursday-Saturday with prelims (11 am, PT) and finals (6 pm, PT) to be conducted each day. Events contested Thursday include the 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free and 200 free relay with only a finals session for the relay event.

'We raced well today and got some of the jitters out of the way,' stated Maurer. 'We are going to come back tomorrow and see what we can do.'